Whimsical Eons
by GoodbyeCrimson
Summary: Oichi can't understand the hectic world around her, but she knows the pain of losing someone important more than anyone. MitsunarixOichi. Oneshot.


A/N: In the Japanese translations, Oichi talks about herself in the third person. I used the first person in my story because that's how she talks in the English release of the game (in case you weren't aware). I actually don't really like this pairing (I'm more of a MitsunarixMagoichi/IeyasuxOichi supporter), but I thought it would be fun to write and I was kind of disappointed by the lack of interaction between these two in the game. I mean, they do look good together.

Please review and tell me what you think. :)

**Whimsical Eons**

_When a moment passes, it ceases to exist...if it's already past, how do you know it existed at all? If we've not recorded the time that's fluttered away from us, of these fleeting moments that dance away like fireflies into the night, how do we know they ever existed? They become swallowed by the darkness, and disappear without a trace...I am, too, going to disappear like that? _Oichi pondered drowsily, the death-black shadows that danced around her heels always threatening to engulf her entirely and end her meager Demon Queen waded through the stream of time in such manner, unaware of how each second slipped through her fingers, of how the world buzzed by around her. She possessed only a base understanding of what had come to pass between Ieyasu and Hideyoshi, and her words were so riddled with lyrical nonsense that others seldom understood her, even when she did make sense of the world around her.

The time before had ceased to exist for the lady of the Oda clan. The empathic female samurai had felt for all of her older brother's victims, but her blood-ties and love for him prevented her from rebelling. Caught in the middle of his chaos, Oichi could do nothing. Her morals stopped her from taking part in the atrocities he committed, but her loyalty kept her from taking up a weapon against him. "I've never had a purpose." She thought aloud one night, looking back on a past that no longer existed for her. "Why am I still here? Brother, is that you? Do you know...? Do you know why I exist?" It was a question the dark queen couldn't figure out on her own. She was a wanderer, a feather floating along on the breeze without rhyme or reason, a firefly flickering in the wraps of deep midnight. "Brother...why was I born?" She pleaded again, but the dead man would give her no answers. "I...don't have a purpose...?"Oichi didn't think about the question long, but somewhere in the back of her mind it stayed. Somewhere in the back of the mind, she knew she couldn't continue to move passively along.

It was that desire for purpose that caused Oichi to involve herself in the dispute that was tearing apart Japan. Without the hold of time or reason, she soon found herself standing in front of the grim gates of the Osaka palace Mitsunari had inherited from his deceased lord. She didn't remember how she had gotten there, she simply decided that she would pay the pained lord a visit, and the dark claws that cluttered around her had carried her to his doorstep.

"My, what lovely flowers. It shouldn't matter if I pick a few... Maybe Lord Grumpy will like them." She mused, kneeling down and plucking a crimson spider lily, cradling it in her pale hands delicately. "That's right little flower... I must take you away now. You want to be with the others? I'm so sorry, Mr. Flower...but Lord Grumpy is lonely, so you must go to him now. The soil may be your home, but we all lose our homes...Everyone does."

With a certain sluggishness the abandoned princess continued forward, her dark violet eyes taking in nothing of her surroundings as she stumbled into the lion's den. When soldiers got in her way she left them broken like dolls, her dark aura acting of it's own accord when she was too far lost in her dream world to notice the masses approaching her. Occasionally she would start to sing, the soldiers freezing when they became caught in her dark gaze. Her round, innocent eyes were macabre reminder that she had once been a normal girl before the ominous shadows had taken hold in her heart, leaving her a wandering phantom without a place to call home.

Behind one of the pagoda-style structures was a small enclosure of trees, the Dark King Mitsunari seated on a stone in front of a small koi pond. The fish swirled around mindless as he watching them with wary eyes, holding his sword tighter as the gentle moonlight reflected of the calm blue water. He heard the cacophony of Oichi's arrival somewhere off in his fortress, but was too immersed in his own troubles to pay it any mind. With the back of one gloved hand he wiped away his black tears, cursing his own weakness.

"Oh, Lord Grumpy. So this is where you are." A soothing voice came through the trees, Oichi smiling as she ghosted her way towards the lonely king.

Mistunari sprang to his feet, his blade drawn and pointed towards the woman's silhouette at the edge of the clearing. Despite the malice shinning in his watery golden eyes she inched forward at her usual pace, undeterred . "Lord Grumpy...how sad you look. I could hear you crying...so sad, your heart must be completely empty now... but I understand. My heart is lost, too."

"Don't act like you know my pain!" Mitsunari yelled, as he had become accustomed to doing since the lose of his lord. "You were just the doll of the Oda clan! You weren't strong enough to stand up to you brother, nor are you strong enough to avenge him! How I would _kill_ for your power...yet you arbitrarily wander this world as if your only goal is to take up space!" Mitsunari held his sword to the woman's chest, ready to pierce her broken heart if she dared make another move towards him. "Leave, now! I have no time for you, Demon Queen!"  
"But I wanted to give this to you." She held her hands out, the crimson blossom laying in her palms. "We all lose our homes...everyone does. I lost my home, too...Did I ever have one to begin with?" She thought to herself for a moment, as if she had forgotten the grieving general still stood before her with his sword drawn. Her violet eyes focused on him again, her long lashes fluttering over her eyes as she suddenly remembered where she was. "Lord Grumpy lost his home, too...so I wanted to give you this. It doesn't have a home down, either. I dug it up for you...even if neither of you have homes, you can be alone together."

"Nonsense." Mitsunari growled. He sheathed his sword, choosing instead to slap Oichi's outstretched hands bitterly. He dealt with her like a child, a mindless infant that he would scold and send away.

"Oh no..." The dark haired woman seemed genuinely distraught over the flower, putting her hands over her face as though she couldn't stand the sight of her discarded gift. "Lord Grumpy doesn't like me..."

"Get out of here." Mitsunari ordered. He caught a flicker of orange in the corner of his eye, remembering the fish that swam around aimlessly just like the dazed princess. _How can she act like she knows my suffering...She doesn't even realize where she is... this idiot can't understand this torn heart of mine! _He thought, ordering her once more, "Get out of here now, Demon Queen!"

"But you're all alone, Lord Grumpy...Will you go back to crying again?" Oichi reached a hand out to the Dark King, but her continual pity only further agitated him. He swung his sheathed sword, smacking the poltergeist of the Oda family across the face. She fell backwards with the ease of a flower in the wind, her long dark hair fanned out around her as she slowly raised a hand to her reddened cheek.

"Stop it! I don't want you looking down on me!" Before the lackadaisical girl could defend herself the Dark King was on top of her, straddling her as he wrapped his gloved hands around her neck. "_I hate it_! I hate the way he always looks at me like I'm some misguided child! Like I need to be consoled! He looks at me with those wretched eyes full of pity-but he doesn't care at all! He takes everything from me...all this suffering is his fault, and yet he thinks he has he right to pity me!" Mitsunari bit his lower lip, his black tears spotting Oichi's porcelain skin.

"Oh, Lord Grumpy, you're so sad, aren't you?" Oichi replied. "It's alright. I've lost everything too. Everyone loses their home. Lord Grumpy is no different...the poor flower lost it's garden when I picked it...and I lost my home too...so long ago, it's painful to think about now." Her voice grew darker with the last words, but perked up again when she continued, "I don't pity you, Lord Grumpy... not especially... Lord Happy is so bright... but he isn't entitled to try and reach out to you after all he taken from you. He doesn't realize that you've lost your home, Lord Grumpy...But Ichi knows... It happened to me as well."

Mitsunari loosened his hold on the girl's slender neck, which felt so delicate between his gloved hands. _That's right... this isn't the throat I want to choke the life out of. _He thought, suddenly becoming aware of her thin body underneath him and her long, bare legs. In every way, she was an entirely disparate being from the item of his revenge. She wasn't Ieyasu, who pitied him hypocritically while continuing to contribute to his torment. She was just a girl, like a broken flower, who knew the pain in his eyes. A simple moth drawn to the flame of their kindred spirits. She was just a girl who didn't want to be alone anymore, and knew that he could understand her pain.

_Again and again I wonder what I could take from others to make them understand my lament...but I don't have to take anything from her... I __**can't**__ take anything for her, because she has nothing. If there's anyone how can fathom this sorrow that gnaws at the very fiber of my being... it would be her, wouldn't it...? _Mitsunari thought. He lower his hands, placing them in the grass next to her, her ethereal eyes like two darkly shinning moons watching his every move. _How long I've wanted someone to know my feelings... without offering me pity in return for my grief...How long I've waited for her, without even realizing it. _He leaned down, slowly yet confidently, pressing his lips to her pink ones. He kissed her lightly, just brushing against the lethargic maiden's lips, parting from her after a moment and standing up.

Oichi sat up, looking up at the Dark King in confusion, perplexed by his acts of kindness and cruelty. He bent down and retrieved the spider lily, grasping it in his gloved fist and extending it to the dark-eyed fairy. "You're pathetic, Demon Queen...just a pathetic, lonely ghost..." He looked away from her, a hint of blush working up his cheeks. "But...perhaps we could be alone together."

"I would like that, Lord Grumpy." Oichi smiled, reaching up and wrapping her gentle hands around his, pressing the twisted petals to her cheek. _Oh, I've forgotten what I came here for...but...I feel as though I've accomplished what I set out to do...how odd... _She thought, content for the first time she could remember. If she felt her place in time was wanning, she needed only to reach out a hand and grab his, to know that her place in the world was cemented. Time could flow by as insubstantial as ever, but it was alright, because she would stay, despite the darkness licking at the corners of her mind. She would stay by his side.


End file.
